Abstract
Probiotic viability is generally determined by quantifying its resistance to simulated gastric juice or to simulated intestinal fluid in in vitro tests, which measure microbial survival after given periods of contact. The use of a neutralizing agent is needed to avoid a carry-over of gastric or intestinal juice into the culture media of the subsequent analysis and to avoid any antimicrobial effect extended over the defined period of contact of the test. Neutralization of gastric juice and intestinal juice are of the utmost importance to present data accurately. Failing to do so determines a carry-over of bactericidal activity to the plates used for the enumeration, which further reduces the number of surviving cells. Examples of such incorrect adaptation of the test are available in literature. The purpose of this perspective stems from the discovery that many studies do not adhere to internationally recognized standards, e.g., EN 1040:2005 (European Committee for Standardization [ECS], 2005), to evaluate the basic, bactericidal activity of compounds, especially for the neutralization step.
Highlights
The term “probiotic” means “for life” and is generally used to identify bacteria that can exert a beneficial effect to humans and animals
Probiotic formulations have to contain a sufficient number of living microorganisms (Kolacek et al, 2017), it is of the utmost importance for the release of bacteria from the formulation to be controlled and their deposition to be spread along the intestine in order to deliver probiotics to both small and large intestine
Many in vitro studies have been conducted, and the results show heterogeneous behavior, depending on the species or strains analyzed and methods applied (Chandramouli et al, 2004; Lin et al, 2006; Cook et al, 2011; Sahadeva et al, 2011; Jensen et al, 2012; Fredua-Agyeman and Gaisford, 2014; Li et al, 2019). The purpose of this perspective stems from the discovery that many studies do not adhere to internationally recognized standards, e.g., EN 1040:2005 (European Committee for Standardization [ECS], 2005), to evaluate the basic, bactericidal activity of compounds, especially for the neutralization step
Summary
The term “probiotic” means “for life” and is generally used to identify bacteria that can exert a beneficial effect to humans and animals. Probiotic formulations have to contain a sufficient number of living microorganisms (Kolacek et al, 2017), it is of the utmost importance for the release of bacteria from the formulation to be controlled and their deposition to be spread along the intestine in order to deliver probiotics to both small and large intestine To this end, many in vitro studies have been conducted, and the results show heterogeneous behavior, depending on the species or strains analyzed and methods applied (Chandramouli et al, 2004; Lin et al, 2006; Cook et al, 2011; Sahadeva et al, 2011; Jensen et al, 2012; Fredua-Agyeman and Gaisford, 2014; Li et al, 2019).
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